Why does the narrator say, ―There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart—an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime‖?

He said so because the sight he beheld was very disheartening.

Explanation:

The story which is "painted" from a gothic genre speaks of the Fall of the House of Usher.

The entierty of the picture which he saw as he traveled toward and into the House of Usher reeked of disrepair, gloom, sadness, loneliness, and the reality that befalls an estate bedeviled by a chain of unfortunate events.

One of such unfortunate incidents was that his childhood friend was sick with multiple sclerosis. Lived alone and in a house that was in a terrible state of disrepair far from anyone who may have the ability to provide any level of social relations.

Cheers

the correct answer is b